Gunstock



eeeeeee K. 7 No. 545,898. Patented Sept. 10, 1895.

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GUNSTOCK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 545,898, dated September 10, 1895. Application filed June 29, 1895. Serial No. 554,487. (No model.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. KING, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Meriden, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Gunstocks, of which the following is a description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, wherein the figure is a view in longitudinal central lengthwise section of a gunstock embodying said improvement.

The object and purpose of theimprovement is the attainment of a cheap and efficient means of so strengthening the curly wood stock of a shotgun or rifle as to avoid the heretofore frequent breakage at the neck or grip, and at the same time using such a material in the attainment of that end as may be Worked and mortised as readily as the material of the ordinary wooden stock and by the use of the same tools and methods.

The use of woods of the so-called curly varieties is a well-known desideratum in the manufacture of stocks for shotguns and rifles, in order to get the peculiar ornamental efieot thereof. In making a gunstock of wood of one of these curly varieties it is a matter of very frequent occurrence that the grain of the wood at the neck or grip of the stock does "not run lengthwise of that neck, but across it, which is something that renders the neck very liable indeed to breakage. So great is this liability of breakage in cases where the grain runs across rather than with the length of the neck or grip, manufacturers of guns reject and refrain from using a large percentage of the very handsomest gunstocks they produce, and the loss resulting therefrom is a serious matter.

It is the purpose and object of the improve ment herein described to wholly cure that difficulty and to so strengthen these gunstocks with cross-grain necks that they shall be even stronger, more serviceable, and more durable than gunstocks of ornamental woods with straight-grain necks not having this improvement.

The end attained by this improvement is one which has long been sought and attempted to be produced in various ways; but the present mode of its attainment is nevertheless a very simple one.

In the accompanying drawing there is shown a wooden gunstock cut in central vertical lengthwise section. The letter a denotes the cross-grain neck thereof. The letter I) denotes a rod of a tough and elastic wood, such as hickory, which traverses the gunstock almost from end to end, it being inserted in a hole bored for it and tightly fastened therein, as by gluing. The letter 0 denotes the buttpiece of the stock. This strengthening rod 1) has, by preference, a diameter at least equal to half the diameter of the neck, or even somewhat greater. This tough and elastic strengthening-rod 1) acts the part of a stout but elastic backbone to the gunstock as a whole and renders that neck less liable to breakage where the gunstock is composed of any ordinary ornamental woods than it would be if the neck were wholly straight grain and this backbone were absent. The use of the wooden strengthening-rod I), made of such a tough and elastic wood as hickory, rather lightens than adds to the weight of the gunstock as a whole, and it can be mortised and bored and otherwise cut and worked for the placement of the lockplate, trigger, and other metallic parts of a gun the same as if the entire gunstock were of one homogeneous and integral mass of wood.

I claim as my improvement- The wooden gunstock having a rod of tough and elastic wood inserted lengthwise in the butt piece and extended lengthwise into the neck, all substantially as described and for the purposes set forth.

CHARLES C. POWERS, RALPH A. PALMER. 

